I whipped around. “What did you say?”
He just smirked then he turned and sauntered down the street.
By the time I made it home, I was trembling so hard I could barely see. I killed the engine and sat in the darkness of the cab. I clutched the steering wheel, sucking in breaths.
What was I supposed to do?
What did any of this mean?
I forced myself out into the night. Wind gusted and worry climbed through every inch of my body. Despite all my efforts, my attention tuned to his house. It was lit, all the windows shining with a soft yellow glow.
Janel’s car was in the driveway, but Rex’s truck was gone.
At least there was some comfort in knowing they weren’t together. It was Friday night, so Rex would be at the bar and Frankie would be spending the night with her grandma, who so obviously had Frankie’s best interest at heart.
I forced myself up the steps, across the porch, and fumbled to get the key into the lock. The door swung open.
Dread echoed back from the silence.
God. I was losing it. I had to be.
But everything felt...off.
I swore a disorder tumbled through the air, a disturbance ricocheting from my grandmother’s walls that hadn’t been there when I’d left this morning.
I flicked on the light. Eyes jumping around. Calculating as I took everything in.
Nothing seemed out of place. But my gut? It warned me someone had been there.
Fear slithered beneath the surface of my skin, and I stepped all the way inside and locked the door. I went into the kitchen and flicked on the light.
Empty.
I was alone. Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better. I warmed up some leftover pot pie in the microwave and sat down at the table by the window. It was like sand in my mouth, but I forced it down since I hadn’t eaten in days.
Forty minutes later, a loud engine rumbled down the street. Approaching. Coming closer.
A frenzy climbed to the air.
Awareness.
Confusion.
Dread.
Headlights sliced through the darkness before Rex’s big truck turned into his driveway, way earlier than I’d have expected him to.
That frenzy roiled.
The breath got locked in my lungs when he finally stepped out, and I couldn’t look away as I watched him, his head drooped between his shoulders as he ascended the porch steps and made his way inside.
My eyes squeezed closed, and I pressed my hand over my heart.
God. What was I supposed to do?
36
Rex
